Abstract
Climate change is not only changing the mean values of environmental parameters that modulate ecosystems, but also the regime of disturbances. Among them, extreme events have a key role in structuring biological communities. Ecosystems are frequently suffering multiple anthropogenic pressures which can cause effects that are not additive. Thus, the effects of extreme events need to be studied in combination with other pressures to adequately evaluate their consequences. We performed a manipulative approach in two rocky shores in the Mediterranean with contrasting levels of anthropogenic pressure (mainly eutrophication) simulating storms with different disturbance regimes in the intertidal and subtidal zones. In the short-term, an extreme storm had a greater impact on the species assemblage than other disturbance regimes, being especially notable in the area suffering from a high anthropogenic pressure. In this area, the species assemblages that suffered from an extreme storm took a longer time to recover than the ones affected by other disturbance regimes and were generally more affected after the disturbance. The intertidal zone, having more variable environmental conditions than the subtidal zone, was more resistant and able to recover from extreme storms. Our results suggest that the effects of extreme events on biological communities could be strengthened when co-occurring with anthropogenic pressures, especially ecosystems adapted to less variable environmental conditions. Thus, limiting other anthropogenic pressures that ecosystems are suffering is crucial to maintain the natural resistance and recovery capacity of ecosystems towards extreme events such as storms.
Highlights
Climate change is changing the mean values of environmental parameters that modulate ecosystems, and the regime of disturbances
The results show that the subtidal zone was, in general, more sensitive to disturbances and to extreme events than the intertidal zone (Table 1), which could be because the intertidal area is a more dynamic ecosystem naturally subjected to a wider range of changing conditions
The resistance and, to some extent the recovery, are expected to be compromised when the community is already under a high anthropogenic pressure and this effect could be more notable in ecosystems with more stable environmental conditions, such as the subtidal compared to the intertidal ecosystem
Summary
Climate change is changing the mean values of environmental parameters that modulate ecosystems, and the regime of disturbances. In the short-term, an extreme storm had a greater impact on the species assemblage than other disturbance regimes, being especially notable in the area suffering from a high anthropogenic pressure. In this area, the species assemblages that suffered from an extreme storm took a longer time to recover than the ones affected by other disturbance regimes and were generally more affected after the disturbance. Our results suggest that the effects of extreme events on biological communities could be strengthened when co-occurring with anthropogenic pressures, especially ecosystems adapted to less variable environmental conditions. Limiting other anthropogenic pressures that ecosystems are suffering is crucial to maintain the natural resistance and recovery capacity of ecosystems towards extreme events such as storms
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